Breaking Bad: Chelsea and Jose Mourinho find themselves at crossroads

How long will Jose Mourinho be Chelsea manager?

As Andy Carroll celebrated his header the other evening at Upton Park and later when Eden Hazard missed a penalty against Stoke City, a sickening feeling must have descended over the Chelsea fans. As the season has progressed, the stress lines seem to have deepened, the cracks now seem more like chasms.

Given the defeats that Chelsea has chalked up over the course of the season, it is interesting to note that a Premier League club for a change has not reacted by firing its manager. Understandably, what appears on the surface may not always be true, as most managers have found to their chagrin. Publicly stating the club’s support is often followed by a pink-slip, a trend often repeated by football clubs.

The club acknowledges that the Special One is the one manager who has been able to translate Roman Abramovich’s thoughts on to the pitch in the form of results and trophies. But in times like this a true test of the relationship is challenged. Still, managers have been fired for much less.

Mourinho’s outbursts a cause for concern

Mourinho’s aggressive interview after the Southampton game seemed more of a gauntlet thrown to the owner to fire him. The club instead responded by publicly backing their man. A win over Aston Villa seemed to have snapped the disappointing results. Instead, the hammers on Saturday and now the Potters at the Britannia stadium on Tuesday night inflicted more defeats and a sense of unravelling of a great manager seems to be slowly descending.

His reactionary nature which comes with doses of sarcastic humour has also suffered this season. Spats with the medical staff, referees and shocking press conferences are just another of those things that can be added to an extremely lengthy list of unruly behavior.

Mourinho, who was known for his consistency of results on the football pitch, seems to have become consistent with his unruly behavior. Fines and bans are generally associated with Mourinho. Alarmingly, the club’s reputation also seems to have taken a nose dive given the way they handled the Eva Carneiro affair. A man who seems to be at war with the world, it seems his self-destructing personality are starting to affect his star players as well.

It all started with the outburst that caused club doctor Eva Carneiro to leave the club

Berating ill-performing players is one thing, but berating your star player for the results that is essentially a team game has very few takers. Tantrums which were earlier considered a way of taking the spotlight away from his players are indeed the only talking points available to the Chelsea fans, given the abject performances up to date. Some may argue that a manager is only as good as the players available to him, but it is the same set of players that waltzed their way to a Premier League title last season.

The question that arises now is what went wrong this summer. It seems that the Chelsea hierarchy’s failure to land targeted players can also be attributed to the results that have currently engulfed the team.

For a man who is used to set plans and targets, a major distraction has been his father’s health. Understandably, the hierarchy has shown him support. But as Dominic Fifield of The Guardian points out, it is his mood which is drawing more focus. The hierarchy has already extended him a lengthy rope. Mourinho, on the other hand, seems to have tried every other way of reviving the team. From putting an arm on a player’s shoulder to private and public outbursts. All methods seems to have had no effect.

A look at the Chelsea squad shows a lack of influential senior players. Branislav Ivanovic, John Obi Mikel and John Terry are the last remaining senior players of the previous Mourinho era, but even their influence has dimmed for one reason or the other.

Freshening up the system

This term, Mourinho has enlisted the help of academy products in the form of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kurt Zouma and Kenedy as well. Given the number of players that have been sold and are on loan across the continent, it seems puzzling that Chelsea were still unable to get players into the club.

Another theory that may be the cause of frustration for Mourinho is the way his discards have performed for other clubs. Most primarily Kevin De Bruyne, now at Manchester City. The fact that City were willing to spend £55 million after he was sold to Wolfsburg for just £18 million must surely irk him. To add to that misery is the fact that De Bruyne has hit the ground running and seems to have found a new level of confidence as was illustrated last season, picking up the German Footballer of the year.

The departure of André Schürrle must also be questioned. A player who provided the World Cup winning assist was let go only six months after that. On the other hand, the £23.3m purchase of Juan Cuadrado didn’t exactly yield the desired effect as he failed to settle in and was let go on loan to Juventus. Meanwhile, Pedro has become another expensive substitute on the Blues’ bench.

Pedro is yet to impress at Chelsea

Such failures in football are not very easy to digest especially for a manager as experienced as Mourinho. Somewhere down the line the questions must have been raised at the board room level which will rightly question his ability to spot and nurture talent. With 34 players out on loan, Mourinho can’t complain about resources not available. Insistence on bigger names and the dealing of egos seem to have come back to haunt him.

In his first stint, Mourinho assembled a talented squad with players such as Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. In the current stint, there is a certain lack of those leaders that could stop this rot. Biting the bullet and moving on seems to be alien to some of the players. Grittiness has been seen only in Diego Costa and Ramires and, to a certain extent, Willian.

Though no ultimatum has been issued to Mourinho, a man who lives and dies by the sword, it seems the vessel of patience has now overflown. What is desirable is a home win against Liverpool. The visitors on Saturday are coming to grips with their own woeful start, which was been littered with 1-1 draws.

In recent weeks, Liverpool have embraced Jurgen Klopp, who will be searching for his first EPL victory as a Liverpool coach. A win at Stamford Bridge for the German might just herald the start of a new era for the Normal One and maybe an end for the Special One.

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